NEWS | Wednesday, 30 April 2008

Foreign Ministers to hold Malta meeting

Oil Exploration on the cards

David Darmanin

At a meeting held last week between Foreign Minister Tonio Borg and his Libyan counterpart Abdul Rahman Shalgam it was agreed that a follow-up meeting is held in Malta – this time also including the Italian foreign minister, a spokesperson for Tonio Borg told Business Today.
“Although oil exploration does not fall into the portfolio of the Ministry for foreign affairs, the subject came up at the meeting with Libya’s foreign minister in Tripoli last week,” the spokesperson said. “The two have agreed on discussing the possibility of joint exploration in disputed areas. On this, Italy would have to come in too, so we’re now waiting for Berlusconi to appoint a Foreign Minister. That done, we have agreed to hold a meeting between the three parties, in which, probably, the issue of finding a political solution for oil exploration will be on the agenda.”
Italy has been propagating the idea of extending its oil exploration zone, cutting a straight line towards Libya, passing over Malta’s territory. The Ministry for foreign affairs has informed this newspaper that it has no official reaction to Italy’s position at this point in time.
Also contacted was Labour Party spokesperson for oil exploration Joe Mizzi, who has accused the government of dragging its feet over the issue.
“I can confirm that a foreign investor was interested in funding an oil exploration company amounts to the tune of Lm300 million,” Mizzi said. “This company was interested in conducting studies at its expense in Areas 2 and 3, which are very encouraging zones. It seems that talks with the Maltese government had stalled, disheartening the investor. I know for a fact that the same investor has now agreed with Libya and is exploring for oil in Libyan territory.”
In the 1996-98 Labour legislature, Mizzi, together with former Foreign Minister George Vella, had settled on a joint venture agreement between Malta and Libya, to share expenses and profits for oil exploration in disputed areas. When MLP lost power in 1998, the project had been discontinued.
“They had laughed at us when we came up with this idea, but this is the way it should be done,” Mizzi said. “What we’re proposing for disputed areas is to bring in a private company, conducting research studies at its own expense, and then if the studies prove to be successful, profits would be split between the company and the countries disputing the area.”
On the possibility of reaching such an agreement with private companies, Mizzi said: “We can forget the large companies, they are simply not interested. But what is happening now that oil prices have soared so much is that for projects of this size, a number of small companies are teaming up to conduct the project together, thus sharing the risk and the burden.”

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